Visual Vengeance: Repligator (1998) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Visual Vengeance

Bret McCormick established himself early on with his 1986 Super 8mm video toothy tentacled bloodbath The Abomination as a SOV (shot-on-video) force to be reckoned with.  On a shoestring, he crafted a prosthetic effects puppetry gross out with a scale and gruesome factor rarely reached by more fully fledged studio productions.  Little wonder newly emerging boutique label Visual Vengeance in conjunction with MVD and Wild Eye Releasing took a shine to Bret McCormick who generously participated in the creation of forthcoming deluxe blu-ray releases of The Abomination and his 1998 erotic sci-fi/action/horror romp Repligator.  A film that doesn’t quite ascend to the nutty heights of his debut but still is made in jest not dissimilar from 1970s Roger Corman productions ala Death Race 2000 or particularly Forbidden World, think of this as a weird crossbreed between Andy Sidaris and Frank Henenlotter on videotape.

 
Within a top-secret military facility, a team of scientists and marines begin working on an experiment spearheaded by Dr. Kildare (horror legend Gunnar Hansen) and Dr. Goodbody (Brinke Stevens) that allows for people to be transported from one place to the next ala the tele pods in The Fly.  However, when the experiment is tested on a surly Private Libo, the man is transformed into a sultry nymphomaniac redhead who immediately gets handsy with the men around her.  Keen on trying the device again to determine the problem, soon the scientists begin experimenting on themselves with many of the female members getting a spike in their libidos with a peculiar side effect: whenever anyone reaches sexual climax, they transform into anthropomorphic alligators that run amok.  Oh and there's a gay zombie in it too because why the Hell not?
 
Featuring a small yet colorful set with characters reciting ridiculous dialogue, scantily clad women and corny looking CG rendered video effects, Repligator on some level feels like a spiritual companion piece to such nutty do-it-yourself fare as Forbidden Zone or more recently Dr. Caligari (no, not the silent film).  Originating as an idea between visual effects technician T.G. Weems who relayed the concept to writer-costar Keith Kjornes after finishing director McCormick’s Time Tracers in 1997, McCormick elected to use the leftover sets and equipment from that film on Repligator as a means to “knock something out” before the sets were torn down.  Akin to Forbidden World in regards to quickly making a film using sets from another film, one gets the sense watching this much of it was made up on the spot.

 
Reportedly shot on 35mm film by Shawn Freeburg and Wynn Winberg before the material was transferred to standard definition video where additional optical effects resembling a Playstation 1 videogame were superimposed later, the look and feel of Repligator is significantly higher in quality than The Abomination despite using a very similar post-production editing process.  The soundtrack by Ron Di Iulio isn’t anything special and doesn’t quite have the same kind of lo-fi grungy energy the score for The Abomination did.  Still, when watching this, you get the impression early on you’re watching an Andy Sidaris film with lots of scenes of nubile women disrobing in front of the camera, sometimes running around topless with an alligator mask stuck on their heads.  There’s also just a hint of Stephen Sayadian with the sets, inane dialogue and eccentric performances, again in a way harkening back to the madcap Dr. Caligari.

 
No this isn’t necessarily good filmmaking or storytelling, throwing the script and story out the window in favor of batshit beer-and-pizza movie antics.  But Visual Vengeance, as with The Abomination, have put together a wonderful deluxe edition replete with a poster, “X-Ray glasses” ala the film’s scenes of male characters undressing women with their eyes, and plentiful extras featuring the generous support of McCormick himself.  For the right crowd under the right circumstances, this can be a blast.  However, there’s also such a strong sense of being a goofy nudie exploitation sci-fi horror romp that it also feels like a throwaway effort.  A fun time in a group setting definitely but it feels like a day off when compared to The Abomination.

--Andrew Kotwicki